How to pay for Income Security

The $3.4 trillion federal budget has passed both houses of Congress, nicely timed for President Obama’s 100th day in office. That’s total spending, the broad outlines, setting the scene for lots of fights over the details.

When people hear about Citizen Dividends, they often agree with the concept – stop the bailouts, give money directly to people, promote the general welfare only – while asking some obvious questions: How are we going to pay for it? How can we afford to give every adult citizen $1,000 a month (or $800 or $1200, to be determined)?

Good questions, especially with massive federal budget deficits. The short answer: We pay for it by cutting government programs that become superfluous. Start with individual welfare programs and corporate welfare. There’s a lot of both in $3.4 trillion.

Every adult citizen will have an income, guaranteed, for food and shelter at least. So it will make sense to cut or eliminate programs that provide for the poor and homeless. That includes food stamps, temporary aid to needy families, housing programs, and much more. We’ll be able to cut those programs at the local, state, and federal level. Current programs are conditional, and therefore highly bureaucratic and costly to administer. The basic income is unconditional, so administrative costs will be extremely low.

Corporate welfare includes all of the bailouts to Wall Street – several trillion dollars in the past year, counting the money released by the Federal Reserve Board. (Though such bailouts will, we hope, not be needed in the future.)

More common and recurring corporate welfare is government spending to create jobs. Politicians and pundits talk about “creating jobs” all the time. Right? Most elected officials seem to believe their primary task in office is to create jobs. Just about everything they do, every time they spend our money, especially these days during the recession, “creating jobs” is what they talk about. We hear that from Democrats and Republicans, from Obama, members of Congress, governors, state legislators, and local officials

Stop for a moment. Think about it. With Citizen Dividends, everyone will have an income for food and shelter. Everyone who’s unemployed or underemployed will be able to provide for themselves while they find or create jobs for themselves. People won’t expect or depend on government to find or create jobs for them.

The federal budget is $3.4 trillion. How much of that spending is individual welfare? How much is corporate welfare and other job programs? A lot of that spending is hidden, most notably corporate welfare in the military budget. Politicians routinely vote for spending, weapons for example, that military experts don’t even want, always with some statements about “jobs.”

Let’s not forget state and local spending, individual welfare and corporate welfare.

We can afford Citizen Dividends. The total cost may be $2 trillion or more, but it could all be paid for through cutting or eliminating other programs. As we debate those cuts, Democrats are likely to insist on protecting the poor and homeless, ensuring that none are harmed. Conservative Republicans and Libertarians might call for cutting and eliminating programs immediately. Lots of compromises will be necessary, but at least we’ll be moving forward.

Real change, not just cosmetics, a Peaceful, Positive Revolution.

Steven Shafarman

Tags: conservative support, corporate welfare, economic stimulus, jobs, politics, popular support, welfare

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 10:15 am and is filed under federal budget.
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